02.21.10
Vista 7 is Still Trying to Catch up With GNU/Linux
Summary: Vista 7 proves to be too heavy for devices and it adds features that Linux has had for a very long time
Archos makes some fine gadgets that I’ve had the pleasure of trying. Archos has always been a great example of Linux being put to good use and recently Archos moved to Android and even liberated (made Free software) its customised, self-tailored platform. In more recent months (maybe about a year ago), Archos began ‘experimenting’ with Windows for whatever reason. But based on the following new review from the Canadian press, Archos should stick with Linux/Android. Vista 7 is just too bloated [1, 2, 3] to handle simple tasks on a mobile device*. Here are portions of this review:
Review: Sluggish Archos 9 demonstrates pitfalls of tablet PCs, need for new tack by Microsoft
[..]
Windows just doesn’t seem at home when squeezed into this 1.8-pound (0.8 kilogram) slab, with a touch-sensitive screen that is 8.9 inches (22 centimeters) on the diagonal. It’s sluggish, and the controls aren’t adapted to the size of the screen or the fact that there’s no real keyboard or mouse.
[...]
It’s a little disconcerting that the Windows tablet experience is so poor, nine years after Microsoft made a big push for its Tablet PC version of Windows XP. Clearly, Microsoft hasn’t really adapted Windows properly for this type of device.
On the Android side, the Archos 5 has just gotten a firmware update:
Recently, I turned on my Archos 5 tablet for my nightly reading and found notification for the firmware update (1.7.77). Alas it’s still Android 1.6. The update went without a glitch but if you are wondering what was includes here’s rundown from the Archos support site:
* Extended Bluetooth™ support for cellphone tethering (DUN and PAN)
[...]
Features are being added on the fly. Can Windows do that? Does it ever do that? And if not, then why not? Let’s face it, the development model of Free software is simply superior as it allows larger disparate groups of developers to handle larger projects.
According to another new article, Vista 7 has a ‘dangerous’ ‘new’ feature:
Microsoft Windows 7, for example, contains software that allows a user’s laptop to do double-duty as a rogue Wi-Fi access point that masks the entry of unauthorized users onto the corporate network.
GNU/Linux has been able to do that for ages, as Slashdot correctly points out:
While this means a bit more policing for networks meant to be locked down, it sounds like a good thing overall. Linux users, meanwhile, have had kernel support (since 2.6.26) for 802.11s mesh networking, as well as Host AP support for certain chipsets.
GNU/Linux is about control by the user, Windows is about taking control away from the user. Microsoft is still catching up with Linux (technically) and drifting further away when it comes to respecting the user. █
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* One of these sources suggests that Vista 7 is sometimes slower than Vista. Our reader Ryan, a former MVP of Microsoft, says that Vista 7 has more bugs than Vista, which is why he prefers the latter and he is not alone based on the news. But marketing lies from Microsoft made a real “Mojave” out of Vista. They called it “Windows 7″.
“Well the initial impression is how much it [Windows 7] looks like Vista. Which I think is…uh…the thing I’m not supposed to say.”
–Microsoft Jack Schofield
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Robotron 2084 said,
February 21, 2010 at 1:23 pm
The reason I like Slashdot is that you often get both sides of the spectrum. Take note of which half Roy makes use of. The article was heavily panned by many commentators as seriously flawed.
Best comment of the bunch:
I don’t participate much in the bore-a-thon ****-measuring contest called “Windows v Linux” on /. but for the record, its crap reporting to claim that Windows 7′s “SoftAP” is a “rogue” which allows “ghostriding” while Linux’s “802.11s mesh networking” is somehow better because it pre-dates Windows 7 when it allows the same problem which needs to be policed.
I have lots of criticisms of Windows generally and I run XP and Kubuntu, but SoftAP is a network management issue for corporate networks, not a “rogue”.